› added 1 year ago

57

TIL Toll roads are an ancient concept and are referenced by Pliny and Aristotle.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

d8OV9 TIL that a "Mary Sue" character - usually a writer self inserting themselves into a story where they can do nothing wrong - is named after a Star Trek fanfic where a 15 year old Lieutenant Mary Sue ran the ship, won the Nobel Prize, and her birthday was a national holiday each year.
9YddQ TIL The two parts to the word “helicopter” are not “heli” and “copter”, but “helico” meaning spiral, and “pter” meaning one with wings, like pterodactyl.
Oop7X TIL that in 1956 the US Navy, at the request of Icelandic fishermen, destroyed hundreds of killer whales with machine guns, rockets and depth charges.
J1Q84 TIL Oprah became co-anchor of the evening news in Nashville at only 19 years old; success happened for her 'just like that'
RNx6 TIL that we’re on the brink of a global wine shortage, patially because China’s consumption of wine has doubled twice in the last five years.